Sunday, October 15, 2017

(Kirkuk) In a story line resembling something out of the TV
show ‘Game of Thrones’. Iraq has sent in
the army to retake the city of Kirkuk from the Kurds. Both sides having fought for years against
Islamic state, have now decided to face off against each other.

To be honest, the Kurds have over stretched themselves and
don’t have the luxury of the Zagros Mountain range which has protected them for
years. Add the fact that with provincial and national parliamentary elections to be held early next year, anybody who is
seen to be going soft on a land grab by the Kurds especially after years of fighting against ISIS
won’t be winning many prizes. Plus with
neither Turkey, Syria or even Iran supporting the case for a breakaway Kurdish
state, the best thing the Kurds should do is back off and keep the death toll
to a bare minimum. That said , mass Kurdish deaths at the hands of the Iraqi
army would give the Kurds the very excuse they require in which to cede from
Baghdad. And you thought the plot in GOT was complicated.